The Music Thread

[rstrong]

Or, download it before it's too late.

[Bungalow Bill]

Perhaps he should have contacted Major Tom.

[JTA]

rstrong, seen many Yetis up your way? I figured they were common up in those parts seeing as how Canada has a province named Sasquatchewan and all.

The Yeti:

[rstrong]

rstrong, seen many Yetis up your way? I figured they were common up in those parts seeing as how Canada has a province named Sasquatchewan and all.

Is no need for Yeti. We have strong Ukrainian woman from old country.
Strong like steam engine! Smart like tractor!

[JTA]

rstrong, seen many Yetis up your way? I figured they were common up in those parts seeing as how Canada has a province named Sasquatchewan and all.

Is no need for Yeti. We have strong Ukrainian woman from old country.
Strong like steam engine! Smart like tractor!

Is many potato too?

[rstrong]

Is many potato too?

Beets and squash!

Potato only good for borscht.

[rstrong]

How did the chat turn to rstrong's mother-in-law?

JTA asked about Yetis and Sasquatchewan.

It was either that or tell Saskatchewan jokes.

THE SASKATCHEWAN PROVINCIAL MOTTO : "I dunno. What do you wanna do?"

"Canada is like an old cow. The West feeds it. Ontario and Quebec milk it. And you can well imagine what it's doing in the Maritimes."
- Former Saskatchewan premier Tommy Douglas, June 29, 1983

Two American matrons, in the 1940's, are doing a railway tour of the Great White North. Train stops in unknown station. Matron leans out the window to address a local lout, toothpick in mouth, leaning against the station, and asks him where she is. "Saskatoon, Saskatchewan", he offers. She turns to her companion: "Isn't that delightful. They don't speak English!"

TOP 10 REASONS TO LIVE IN SASKATCHEWAN
1. You never run out of wheat
2. Those cool Saskatchewan Wheat Pool hats
3. Cruise control takes on a whole new meaning
4. Your province is really easy to draw
5. You never have to worry about roll-back if you have a standard
6. It takes you two weeks to walk to your neighbor's house
7. YOUR Roughriders survived
8. You can watch the dog run away from home for hours
9. People will assume you live on a farm
10. Buying a huge John Deere mower makes sense

[O Really]

I'll bet you know some Newfie jokes too, eh?

[O Really]

The threshold is remarkably low.

[Bungalow Bill]

Wonder if there is a "statute of limitations" for something like this, because it
has been 43 years. I mean what took them so long? There is a definite sound
a like to the beginning of Stairway, but not the whole song. I read on another
site that the Spirit chord progression is nothing new either, so who knows?

[rstrong]

Take every song the guy ever wrote. Compare it to every song Led Zeppelin and every other band he was ever on stage with ever wrote.

Widen the search to compare just *bits* from each of his songs against all the bits from all the rest.

If no matches were found, THAT would be a remarkable coincidence.

[Wneglia]

[neoplacebo]

...I mean what took them so long?...

The article says:

...Spirit and California's family have waited until now to challenge the song's authorship because they did not have the means to pay attorneys. At the end of California's life, he would play sitar at an Indian restaurant in exchange for food...

I doubt that's the full story. If Spirit has a reasonable case some lawyer would have taken it on contingency.

I'm not sure about the destitute story......Acoustic Sounds, where I buy records, lists half a dozen old Spirit records. One of them, a "Best of" record was just re issued this month. And I myself bought a different Spirit record about six months ago. Unless he's got a particularly large drug habit or a dishonest lawyer / agent, he should still be getting some sort of royalties if he weren't dead. They had several good songs....."Dark Eyed Woman," "Mr. Skin," "I got a Line on You."

[Wneglia]

Didn't even bother to change the key.

[O Really]

I'm not an intellectual property expert, but my understanding from what I've read is that musical pieces don't have to be exact in order to be considered copied. Otherwise, a person could take a song, change one note and claim it to be "new." The two parts necessary to show plagiarism are (1) access to the "original" music; and (2) a sound that those listening would find to be the same. In the latest Zep matter, it would seem they could show Page had certainly heard the music, and when some surveying group played the Spirit riff, there were only two answers: "Stairway to Heaven" and "I don't know."

On the other hand, if it were that clear cut, it looks like somebody would have made an issue of it long ago when Stairway came out, and it probably would have gotten settled with some shared writing recognition and a few dollars. I also am suspicious that they've delayed this long because of not being able to afford a lawyer.

[Bungalow Bill]

Interesting and pretty detailed article on Zeppelin's "appropriations" over the
years, with a chart included!! I guess not everybody was listening to Zeppelin.
I've also read that Randy California was a fairly laid back guy who wasn't that
concerned about the similarities between the two songs, at least at that period.
He also had an early connection with Jimi Hendrix. It was Hendrix who gave
him the California name to distinguish him from another Randy who also played
with Hendrix in the mid 1960s. Forget seven degrees of separation.


http://www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... -reckoning

[JTA]

I can't get enough of this band

[indago]

[billy.pilgrim]

mr bb got me started on Woody

Jolly Banker

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdyLb7ou ... FbX-8QATJw

1913 Massacre

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz7ogugu ... FbX-8QATJw

Ludlow massacre

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDd64suDz1A

Ludlow Massacre
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie
It was early springtime when the strike was on,
They drove us miners out of doors,
Out from the houses that the Company owned,
We moved into tents up at old Ludlow.
I was worried bad about my children,
Soldiers guarding the railroad bridge,
Every once in a while a bullet would fly,
Kick up gravel under my feet.
We were so afraid you would kill our children,
We dug us a cave that was seven foot deep,
Carried our young ones and pregnant women
Down inside the cave to sleep.
That very night your soldiers waited,
Until all us miners were asleep,
You snuck around our little tent town,
Soaked our tents with your kerosene.
You struck a match and in the blaze that started,
You pulled the triggers of your gatling guns,
I made a run for the children but the fire wall stopped me.
Thirteen children died from your guns.
I carried my blanket to a wire fence corner,
Watched the fire till the blaze died down,
I helped some people drag their belongings,
While your bullets killed us all around.
I never will forget the look on the faces
Of the men and women that awful day,
When we stood around to preach their funerals,
And lay the corpses of the dead away.
We told the Colorado Governor to call the President,
Tell him to call off his National Guard,
But the National Guard belonged to the Governor,
So he didn't try so very hard.
Our women from Trinidad they hauled some potatoes,
Up to Walsenburg in a little cart,
They sold their potatoes and brought some guns back,
And they put a gun in every hand.
The state soldiers jumped us in a wire fence corners,
They did not know we had these guns,
And the Red-neck Miners mowed down these troopers,
You should have seen those poor boys run.
We took some cement and walled that cave up,
Where you killed these thirteen children inside,
I said, "God bless the Mine Workers' Union,"
And then I hung my head and cried.

[neoplacebo]

Fascinating; I thought I was the only one who did this.